EN 356 Certification

BS EN 356 defined by European Union is ” Glass in building and Security glazing – Testing and classification of resistance against manual attack. It is designed to resist forced entry by delaying access of objects or persons to a protected space for a short period of time. There are two types of attack test in EN 356: an impact test using a steel ball (lower resistance level) and a hammer & axe test (higher resistance level) to destroy the glass through the principles of mechanics. Testing results can be used to classify glasses in terms of their resistance to physical assault and there are totally eight classes of increasing resistance ; P1A to P5A are based on the falling ball test and P6B to P8B are based on a hammer and axe test.

EN 356 Axe Testing Method

Axe Testing Method

EN 356 axe testing method comprises both hammer and axe (weight 2kg) strikes on the 400 mm x 400 mm square area of a vertically positioned glass with the size 1,100 x 900 mm. At least 12 hammer strikes are used to destroy the testing glass first and then the following axe cutting strikes are tried to make an opening. The axe test is passed if the square opening (400 mm x 400 mm) is not formed and completely detached from the rest of the test sheet. Finally the number of strikes are counted and classified as P6B to P8B which denote their resistant ability to penetrate the glass.

EN 356 axe test is designed to verify higher resistance level of the glass which can withstand a crowbar, hammer, sledgehammer, iron pipe and other weapons and therefore create high difficulties of forced entry threats.

EN 356 Hammer and Axe Testing Videos (Derstrong)

EN 356 Falling Ball Test

Testing Standard

EN 356 falling ball test is designed to drop a steel ball with a diameter of 100mm and weight 4.11kg from various height (1.5m ~ 9m) in a triangular area (13 cm between impacts) of the horizontal positioned 1,100 mm x 900 mm sheet. And the number of impacts and the drop height vary depending on the classification P1A to P5A which denote their resistant ability to penetrate the glass. The ball test is considered successful if the ball does not pass through the test sheet entirely within five seconds of the moment of impact.